143 


-    DUBOIS 


CONDITION  OF  THE 
MISSION  INDIANS 


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[No.  54,  Skcond  Series. -3000] 


THE   CONDITION 


MISSION  INDIANS 


\y 


SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA 


By  Constance  Goddard  Dubois 

I' 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

OFFICE  OF  THE  INDIAN  RIGHTS  ASSOCIATION 
No.  1305  Arch  Street 

I9OI 


E13 


THE  CONDITION  OF  THE  MISSION  INDIANS 
OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA. 

By  CONSTANCE  GODDARD  Du  BOIS. 

Few  Indians  are  so  little  known  as  the  Mission  Indians 
of  Southern  California;  few  have  been  so  neglected  by  the 
Government;  and  yet  there  is  in  no  other  case  better  mate- 
rial for  producing  all  the  fruits  of  civilization  by  building 
up  out  of  their  past,  where  already  a  good  foundation  had 
been  laid.     Their  history  is  unique  in  this  respect. 

In  1767  Spain  sent  a  military  expedition  to  conquer 
California  and  with  it  sent  a  band  of  missionary  priests 
with  orders  to  convert  and  civilize  the  Indians ;  and  so 
successfully  did  they  fulfil  their  appointed  task  that  in 
thirty-one  years  they  had  gathered  in  the  Mission  communi- 
ties 13,500  Indian  converts,  and  had  taught  them  many  of 
the  arts  and  industries  of  civilized  life,  so  many,  indeed, 
that  the  list  would  surprise  those  careless  observers  who 
declare  that  Indians  are  naturally  lazy  simply  because  we 
have  forced  them  to  remain  unemployed. 

The  Spaniards  taught  them  to  be  "  saddlers,  blacksmiths, 
coopers,  freighters,  candle-makers,  vintagers,  coppersmiths, 
hatters,  guitar-makers,  muleteers,  ranchmen,  doctors,  rope- 
makers,  shepherds,  woodcutters,  painters,  sculptors,  bell- 
ringers,  masons,  acolytes,  sacristans,  stonecutters,  cooks, 
soap-makers,  tanners,  weavers,  tilemakers,  embroiderers, 
farmers,  herders,  barbers,  carpenters,  and  basket- makers," 
and  all  these  trades  were  practically  applied  in  the  daily 
life  of  the  Mission  community.  Indians  built  the  Mission 
churches  whose  ruins  are  the  admiration  of  the  tourist 
in  Southern  California.  They  carved  the  fonts  and  altar- 
rails  and  statues,  made  musical  instruments,  and  played 
upon  them  in  the  choirs.     They  learned  to  emboss  leather, 

3 


engrave  horn,  inlay  wood  and  iron  with  silver ;  the  women 
were  taught  embroidering  in  gold  and  silver  thread,  lace 
work,  drawn  work,  and  the  native  basket-making  was 
encouraged. 

The  success  of  this  practical  work  shows  what  wise 
statesmanship  could  devise  and  devoted  Christian  purpose 
accomplish  with  no  previous  preparation  in  an  incredibly- 
short  space  of  time  toward  building  up  an  Indian  civiliza- 
tion "  as  beautiful  as  it  was  transient."  Evil  days  began 
for  the  Indians  when  the  rule  of  Spain  was  exchanged  for 
that  of  Mexico  ;  but  even  under  Mexico  the  legal  rights 
of  the  Indians  as  human  beings  and  land-owners  were  re- 
spected as  they  have  never  been  under  the  United  States. 
Grants  of  land  were  made  subject  to  the  express  stipula- 
tion that  the  Indians  settled  upon  such  land  and  their  suc- 
cessors and  heirs  should  never  be  molested. 

In  1848  California  became  by  conquest  and  purchase  the 
property  of  the  United  States  ;  and  when  the  crowding  set- 
tlers, crazy  with  greed  of  gold  and  greed  of  land,  came 
pushing  in,  there  was  no  wise  statesman,  no  Christian 
priest,  to  inquire  who  or  what  were  the  possessors  of  that 
land.  Indians,  to  the  settler,  were  no  more  than  herds  of 
wild  deer,  to  be  driven  back  in  advance  of  the  white  man. 
They  did  not  stop  to  notice  that  these  Indians  were  many 
of  them  industrious  and  civilized,  settled  as  agricultural 
communities  with  farms,  orchards,  and  vineyards,  on  land 
where  they  had  peaceably  maintained  themselves  for  gen- 
erations. 

The  history  of  this  brutal  aggression  can  not  be  summed 
up  in  any  phrase  or  paragraph,  for  it  has  never  ended,  is 
still  in  progress,  and  will  continue,  unless  some  legal  barrier 
is  thrown  about  him  for  his  defense,  until  the  last  Mission 
Indian  has  been  exterminated. 

In  1883  Helen  Hunt  Jackson  and  Abbot  Kinney  were 
sent  as  special  agents  by  the  Government  to  report  on  the 
condition  of  the  Mission  Indians,  and  although  the  report 


5 

made  was  very  full  and  convincing,  almost  none  of  its  rec- 
ommendations was  acted  upon,  and  many  of  them  apply 
with  even  greater  force  now  than  at  that  time ;  for  in  all 
these  seventeen  years  the  same  story  of  the  white  man's 
theft  of  land  and  the  Indians'  forced  retreat  has  been 
going  on. 

"  The  first  and  most  essential  step,"  says  Mrs.  Jackson, 
**  without  which  there  is  no  possibility  of  protecting  these 
Indians  or  doing  anything  intelligently  for  them,  is  the 
determining,  re-surveying,  rounding  out,  and  distinctly 
marking,  their  reservations  already  existing.  The  only 
way  of  having  this  done  accurately  a'nd  honestly  is  to  have 
it  done  by  a  surveyor  who  is  under  the  orders  and  constant 
supervision  of  an  intelligent  and  honest  commissioner;  not 
by  an  independent  surveyor  who  runs  or  floats  reservation 
lines  where  he  and  his  friends  or  interested  parties  choose, 
instead  of  where  the  purpose  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment, looking  to  the  Indians'  interests,  had  intended. 
There  have  been  too  many  surveys  of  Indian  reservations 
in  Southern  California  of  this  sort.  All  the  reservations 
made  in  1876 — and  that  comprises  nearly  all  now  existing 
— were  laid  off  by  guess,  by  the  surveyor  in  San  Diego,  on 
an  imperfect  county  map.  When  the  actual  survey  came 
to  be  made,  it  was  discovered  that  in  the  majority  of  cases 
the  Indian  villages  intended  to  be  provided  for  were  out- 
side the  reservation  lines,  and  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
lands  set  aside  were  wholly  worthless." 

The  flourishing  Indian  village  of  Santa  Ysabel,to  which 
Mrs.  Jackson  refers  as  showing  the  Indians'  thrift  and  in- 
dustry, has  been  swallowed  up  by  the  surrounding  ranch, 
which  is  constantly  making  new  surveys  to  extend  its 
boundary-lines  to  take  in  the  last  patch  of  fertile  land  on 
the  borders  of  the  Indian  reservation.  For  this  reservation 
a  barren  mountain-side  has  now  been  given,  with  only 
a  few  tillable  spots  here  and  there,  of  less  than  half  an  acre 
each  ;  yet  even  upon  this  miserable  refuge  the  white  man 


has  intruded,  for  the  best  of  the  land  upon  the  upper  slopes 
where  there  is  water  has  been  appropriated  by  cattlemen 
for  their  herds. 

No  wonder  the  Indian  is  driven  to  despair,  since  he  is 
willing  and  eager  to  work ;  he  has  had  the  means  of  liveli- 
hood, and  they  have  been  persistently,  gradually  wrested 
from  him,  until  he  finds  himself  face  to  face  with  a  future 
of  absolute  hopelessness. 

The  Jackson  and  Kinney  report  continues :  "  All  white 
settlers  now  on  reservations  should  be  removed.  For  the 
last  four  years  [now  for  the  last  twenty-one  years]  stray 
settlers  have  been  going  in  upon  the  reservation  tracts. 
Thus,  in  many  instances  the  Indians'  fields  and  settlements 
have  been  wrested  from  them,  and  they  in  their  turn  have 
not  known  where  they  could  or  could  not  go.  .  .  .  The 
amount  of  land  set  off  in  Indian  reservations  in  Southern 
California  appears  by  the  record  to  be  very  large,  but  the 
proportion  of  it  which  is  really  available  is  very  small.  San 
Diego  County  itself  is  four-fifths  desert  and  mountain,  and 
it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  proportion  of  desert 
and  mountain  in  the  reservations  is  greater  than  this." 

As  to  Mesa  Grande,  the  report  states :  "The  condition 
of  the  Indians  in  this  district  is  too  full  of  complications 
and  troubles  to  be  written  out  here  in  detail.  .  .  . 
Whether  it  is  possible  for  the  Government  to  put  these 
Mesa  Grande  Indians  in  a  position  to  protect  themselves, 
and  have  anything  like  a  fair  chance  to  make  their  living 
in  their  present  situation,  is  a  question  ;  but  that  it  ought 
to  be  done  if  possible  is  beyond  question.  It  is  grievous 
to  think  that  this  fine  tract  of  land,  so  long  owned  and 
occupied  by  these  Indians,  and  in  good  faith  intended  by 
the  Government  to  be  set  aside  for  their  use,  has  thus 
passed  into  other  hands  (by  white  men  crowding  the 
Indians  out).  Even  if  the  reservation  tract;  some  three 
hundred  acres,  has  been  by  fraudulent  representations  re- 
stored to  the  public  domain,  and  now  occupied  by  a  man 


named  Clelland,  who  has  taken  steps  to  patent  it,  the  tract 
by  proper  investigation  and  action  could  probably  be 
reclaimed  for  the  Indians'  use." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  such  action  has  never  been 
taken ;  and  in  the  other  instances  mentioned  where  white 
men  had  stolen  the  Indians*  land,  driving  them  off  at  the 
point  of  a  musket,  the  white  man's  right  (?)  of  possession 
has  never  been  questioned. 

It  can  not  be  by  chance  that  the  same  thing  has  hap- 
pened so  often  in  this  region — viz.,  the  setting  off  of  a 
reservation  for  Indians,  supposedly  to  include  the  sites  of 
the  villages  which  they  were  contentedly  occupying,  and 
the  later  "  discovery  "  that  thp  village  was  left  outside  the 
reservation  lines,  requiring  that  the  Indians  should  again 
and  again  move  off.  The  reservation  at  Capitan  Grande 
was  found  to  include  mostly  the  steep  bare  sides  of  the 
mountain  walls  of  the  cafion.  No  one  who  has  not  seen 
these  California  mountains  can  realize  how  savage,  barren, 
and  forbidding  a  mountain-side  can  be.  "  Capitan  Grande 
is  a  disgrace,"  said  Father  Ubach,  of  San  Diego,  with  in- 
dignant sorrow  in  his  voice. 

At  Los  Conejos  Mrs.  Jackson  found  the  Indians  raising 
corn,  beans,  and  squash,  **  and  yet  there  is  not  a  plow  in 
the  village.  .  .  .  The  Captain  asked  for  plows,  harness 
and  all  things  to  work  with." 

They  are  still  asking  for  these  things.  What  is  the 
reason  that  the  Government  has  neglected  to  give  these 
Indians  the  absolute  necessities  for  their  subsistence,  in  the 
desperate  conditions  into  which  neglect,  fraud,  and  oppres- 
sion have  forced  them  ? 

Since  the  full  report  I  have  referred  to  I  am  unaware  of 
any  special  interest  shown  by  any  one  connected  with  the 
Government  concerning  the  condition  of  these  Indians. 
The  agent's  reports  are  brief  and  businesslike;  though 
Mr.  Estudillo,  the  former  agent,  occasionally  urged  the 
misery  of  their  condition  :  "Some  of  their  land  could  not 


8 

support  a  horned  toad,"  he  said,  "  much  less  Indians,  who 
are  human  beings,  with  human  thoughts  and  feelings." 
Washington  lent  no  attention  to  this  statement.  Nothing 
was  done.  A  few  plows  were  furnished  here  and  there,  of 
an  unpractical  make,  requiring  for  repair  so  expensive  a 
point  that  the  Indians  could  not  afford  to  mend  them  when 
broken.  A  little  barbed  wire  was  given,  not  nearly- 
enough  and  not  rightly  distributed,  since  during  the  last 
summer  the  white  men's  cattle  broke  into  the  Indians' 
fields  at  Laguna  and  destroyed  the  year's  crops.  No 
reparation  is  ever  made  for  such  damages  as  this ;  but  the 
Indians  must  constantly  keep  all  stock  tied,  as,  if  they 
stray,  the  white  man  steals  them  to  pay  for  "  damages." 

Mrs.  Jackson  recommends  that :  **  There  should  always 
be  provided  for  the  Mission  Indians'  agency  a  small  fund 
for  the  purchase  of  food  and  clothing  for  the  very  old  and 
sick  in  times  of  special  destitution.  The  Mission  Indians 
as  a  class  do  not  beg.  They  are  proud-spirited  and  choose 
to  earn  their  own  living.  They  will  endure  a  great  deal 
before  they  will  ask  for  help.  But  in  seasons  of  drought 
or  when  their  little  crops  have  for  some  reason  failed,  there 
is  sometimes  great  distress  in  the  villages." 

"  There  is  no  Government  land  remaining  in  Southern 
California,"  the  report  continues,  **  in  blocks  of  sufficient 
size  for  either  white  or  Indian  occupancy.  The  reason  that 
the  isolated  little  settlements  of  Indians  are  being  so 
infringed  upon  and  seized,  even  at  the  desert's  edge  and  in 
stony  fastnesses  of  mountains,  is  that  all  the  good  lands — 
i.  e.,  lands  with  water,  or  upon  which  water  can  be  devel- 
oped— are  taken  up." 

The  report  recommended  the  purchase  of  Pauma  Ranch, 
adjoining  La  JoUa  reservation.  If  this  had  been  done,  no 
doubt  it  would  have  made  '*  comfortable  provision  for  all 
the  Indians,  except  those  living  within  the  boundaries  of 
confirmed  grants,"  as  Mrs.  Jackson  hoped  ;  but  it  was  never 
purchased. 


9 

If  new  homes  were  to  be  provided,  she  urged  the  pur- 
chase of  Santa  Ysabel  Ranch,  which  could  then  have  been 
bought  for  ;^95,ooo.  Seventeen  years  of  continued  en- 
croachments have  made  the  situation  more  and  more  diffi- 
cult ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  the  Government, 
which  spends  thousands  of  dollars  upon  less  worthy  tribes, 
will  contentedly  submit  to  allow  the  gradual  crowding  off 
from  land  and  life  of  the  scattered  remnants  of  these 
unfortunate  and  worthy  people. 

I  took  a  tour  last  summer  through  some  of  the  remoter 
reservations  where  the  agent  had  made  only  one  visit,  and 
where  white  visitors  seldom  penetrate ;  and  moved  by  my 
representations  of  the  needs  of  the  case.  Rev.  H.  B.  Res- 
tarick,  of  St.  Paul's  Episcopal  Church,  San  Diego,  Cal., 
accompanied  by  Rt.  Rev.  Joseph  H.  Johnson,  of  Los 
Angeles,  followed  me  later  in  the  same  tour,  slightly 
varied  to  take  in  a  few  places  I  did  not  see,  and  not  going 
so  far  as  I  did,  to  Manzanita,  one  of  the  most  inaccessible 
places.  Bishop  Johnson  says:  "The  wretchedness  and 
misery  of  the  Indians  on  most  of  the  reservations  in  South- 
ern California  that  I  have  visited,  can  not  be  overstated.  If 
the  policy  of  the  Government  is  to  exterminate  its  unfor- 
tunate wards,  it  has  made  a  good  start  in  that  direction.  If 
the  policy  is  to  assist  and  uplift  these  people  and  make 
them  self-supporting,  it  will  have  to  change  its  methods." 
But  neither  the  Bishop,  Mr.  Restarick,  nor  myself  have 
visited  the  Desert  Indians,  belonging  to  this  same  agency ; 
and  a  full  report  can  not  be  made  without  including  them, 
since  the  worst  has  not  been  seen  until  they  are  visited. 
In  summer,  when  the  temperature  ranges  above  120 
degrees,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  visit  their  settlements,  but 
I  hope  that  something  may  be  accomplished  soon  in  this 
•direction. 

Relief  must  take  the  form  of  permanent  aid,  placing  all 
these  Indians  in  a  position  where  they  can  support  them- 
selves.    A  fund  to  buy  food  for  the  oldest  and  most  indi- 


lO 

gent  is  a  necessity  ;  but  these  Indians  do  not  want  to  be 
fed  with  rations.  One  of  them  said  :  "  We  do  not  want 
flour  and  sugar,  but  we  want  a  chance  to  buy  these  things 
with  money  of  our  own  earning.     We  want  good  land." 

This  is  the  universal  idea  among  them.  Could  there  be 
a  better  foundation  for  self-respecting  industry  than  such  a 
desire? 

In  the  case  of  these  Indians  we  do  not  have  to  combat 
the  habit  of  the  nomadic  existence  which  so  easily  be- 
comes converted  into  idleness  when  the  pursuits  of  the 
wilderness  and  the  industries  of  the  chase  must  be  given 
up.  We  do  not  have  to  teach  them  the  white  man's  ways 
as  something  new  and  strange,  for  they  have  long  since 
adopted  his  dress  and  manner  of  living  so  far  as  poverty 
will  allow.  They  are  all  anxious  for  better  things,  yearn- 
ing for  the  chance  to  work  at  productive  industries,  to  make 
better  homes,  to  live  in  decency  and  comfort.  This  is  still 
the  prevalent  feeling  among  them.  The  slow  but  certain 
processes  of  degradation  which  must  come  to  any  commu- 
nity or  any  family  when  reduced  to  absolute  destitution  are 
already  at  work  among  them  ;  but  so  far  they  resist  them. 
They  still  care,  they  still  struggle,  they  still  beg  for  land,, 
not  for  charity  ;  for  work,  not  for  food.  If  we  leave  them 
in  this  condition,  or  if  our  aid  is  only  the  temporary 
makeshift  of  rations,  they  will  sink  lower  and  lower,  and  we 
shall  be  responsible  for  their  degradation. 

They  are  now  ready  to  accept  good  influences.  The 
seed  the  early  Spanish  friars  planted  still  bears  fruit.  The 
unfortunate  divisions  among  professed  Christians  make  it 
possible  for  many  worthy  people  to  remain  blind  to  the 
beauty  of  religion  unless  it  speaks  through  the  formulae 
most  acceptable  to  themselves.  They  can  not  see  the 
forms  of  Catholicism  without  burning  with  zeal  to  uproot 
them.  I  am  no  Catholic,  but  I  have  seldom  seen  anything 
more  sincere  than  the  devout  religious  worship  among 
these  poor  neglected  people.     They  cherish  this  as  their 


II 

most  precious  possession,  the  only  good  gift  left  to  them 
of  those  the  early  fathers  gave  them. 

In  places  where  no  priest  has  visited  for  "  many,  many 
years  "  they  still  have  their  little  church,  an  adobe  hut,  or 
one  of  boughs ;  the  altar  is  decked  with  a  few  poor  orna- 
ments, and  candles  set  in  tin  cans  for  candlesticks.  The 
men  enter  with  uncovered  heads,  and  the  people  kneel  on 
the  earth  floor.  One  better  educated  than  the  rest  or 
with  a  better  memory  for  the  Spanish  liturgy  will  say  the 
prayers,  and  the  people  make  the  responses  as  reverently 
as  at  a  cathedral  service.  The  simple  faith  which  rears 
that  humble  altar  should  commend  itself  to  any  professed 
Christian,  by  whatever  name  he  chooses  to  be  called. 

"  They  are  a  gentle,  friendly  race,  incredibly  patient 
under  wrongs,"  as  Mrs.  Jackson  says.  "  They  are  all  so 
polite,  even  in  their  rags,"  says  Mr.  Restarick,  **  so  gentle 
and  respectful." 

**  If  they  were  bloodthirsty  savages,"  remarks  Bishop 
Johnson,  "  the  Government  would  probably  provide  them 
with  ample  rations,  and  other  things  needful  to  keep  them 
from  going  on  the  war-path  ;  but  little  is  being  done  for 
these  peaceful  wards  of  the  nation,  who  are  every  way 
more  deserving  than  the  savage  tribes  who  have  received 
so  much  of  the  nation's  bounty." 

To  understand  the  condition  of  the  land  upon  which 
these  Indians  are  placed,  one  should  visit  the  Indian  set- 
tlements and  see  it  for  himself;  for  in  the  greater  part 
of  our  country,  particularly  in  the  East,  it  is  difficult  for 
people  to  realize  conditions  in  an  arid  section,  where  rain 
never  falls  during  the  summer-time,  and  where  of  late 
years  the  winter  rains  have  been  few  and  far  between. 
The  following  list  of  places  in  this  agency,  with  some 
notice  of  the  character  of  the  land,  was  prepared  by  the 
agent  at  my  request ;  and  I  add  to  it  the  population  at 
each  place  as  far  as  I  could  obtain  it  from  the  figures  of 
an  old  report,  which  will  serve  until  corrected : 


12 

MISSION  TULE  RIVER"  CONSOLIDATED  AGENCY. 

Distance  from 

Name  of  Reservation.               Agency.  General  Condition  of  Land. 

Agua  Caliente  No.  2,     .     50  miles.  Desert  land  ;  very  little  water 

Population  69.  for  irrigation. 

Augustine 75  miles.  Desert;  no  water. 

Population  43. 

Cahuilla 35  miles.  Mountain   valley,   stock  land ; 

Population  186.  little  water. 

Capitan  Grande,      .    .    .  130  miles.  Poi-tion  good ;  very  little  water. 

Population  136, 

Campo 170  miles.  Poor  land  ;  no  water. 

Population  21. 

Cuyapipi, 105  miles.  Poor  land  ;  no  water. 

Population  34. 

Cabazon 70  miles.  Desert ;  produces  nothing  ;  no 

Population  41.  water. 

Injaha  (Anahuac),  .    .    .  100  miles.  Small  amount  of  poor  land. 

Population  45. 
Los  Coyotes 85  miles.  Mountainous,  very  little  farm- 
Population  123.  ing  land. 
Morongo, 25  miles.  Fair  land  with  water. 

Population  294. 

Mesa  Grande, 75  miles.  Small  amount    farming    land. 

Population  206.  but  little  water ;  portion  good 

stock  land. 

Pala, 40  miles.  Good  land  ;  water  ;  allotted. 

Population  43. 

Pauma,      35  miles.  Portion  good  land  with  water. 

Population  62. 

Potrero  (allotted),    .    .    ,    75  miles.  Portion  good  ;  water  on  par^. 

Population  253. 

Rincon  (allotted),    .    .    .    65  miles.  Sandy  ;  portion  of  land  watered. 

Population  130. 

Sycuan  (allotted),    .    .    .110  miles.  Small    quantity    agricultural 

Population  37.  land. 

Santa  Ysabel 80  miles.  Mountainous,    stock  land  ;    no 

Population  97.  water. 

San  Felipe 85  miles.  Title  in  dispute. 

Population  78. 

San  Jacinto 6  miles.  Mostly  poor    land,   very  little 

Population  174.  water. 

San  Manuel, 55  miles.  Worthless;  dry  hills. 

Population  38. 

Santa  Rosa,      52  miles.  Mountainous,  timber,  but  little 

Population  55.  farming. 

Santa  Ynez,      240  miles.  Good    land,   plenty    of   water. 

Population  67.  in  litigation. 


13 

Distance  front 
Name  of  Reservation.  Agency.  General  Condition  of  Land. 

Tule  River 480  miles.     Good    reservation;      small 

Population  106.  amount   farming   land;   well 

watered    stock    and    timber 
land. 
La  Posta, 160  miles.     Worthless,  poor  land  ;  no  water. 

Population  22. 

Martinez, 1 50  miles.     Poor  land ;  no  water. 

Laguna 130  miles.     Small     amount     farm     land; 

Population  6.  springs. 

Temecula  (allotted),  .    .    35  miles.     Almost   worthless    for  lack   of 

Population  175.  water. 

Torres, 75  miles.      Desert,   no  farming ;    Artesian 

Population  319.  water  could  be  obtained,  land 

would  then  be  productive. 
Twenty-nine  Palms,  .    .  190  miles.      Desert. 

Population  27. 
Agua  Caliente  No.  I.     .    60  miles.     Some  good  land ;  small  portion 

Population  149.  watered    by    springs;    value 

lies  in  the  hot  mineral  springs. 

Mataguay, 65  miles.      Fair  land ;  no  water. 

Puerta  de  la  Cruz,       •    .    55  miles.     Small  amount  of  good  land. 
San  Jose,  .......    60  miles.     Small  amount  of  good  land. 

Population  10. 

The  last  four  reservations  are  situated  on  the  well-known 
Warner's  Ranch.  The  ownership  is  now  in  dispute,  await- 
ing the  decision  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court. 

Manzanita,  half  a  day's  journey  from  La  Posta,  is  omitted 
from  this  list.     Land  worthless.     Population,  57. 

Los  Conejos,  near  Capitan  Grande,  is  omitted.  People 
there  said  to  be  in  very  bad  condition  from  poverty  of  land. 

Yuma,  with  population  of  707  miserably  poor  desert 
Indians,  should  also  come  in  this  list. 

The  few  good  reservations  mentioned  should  immedi- 
ately be  allotted  in  such  a  way  that  the  Indians  shall  be 
secured  against  aggression.  To  aid  the  others  is  a  large 
problem.  It  is  easy  enough  to  allow  them  to  be  shoved 
further  back  year  by  year ;  but  to  correct  the  miserable 
position  into  which  years  of  injustice  and  wrongful  aggres- 
sion have  placed  them  is  not  so  easy.  When  Mrs.  Jackson 
made  her  report,  seventeen  years  ago,  it  would  have  been 


14 

still  comparatively  easy  to  have  righted  the  worst  of  the 
evil.  The  Pauma  Ranch  purchase  would  have  done  much  ; 
the  Santa  Ysabel  Ranch  purchase  would  have  done  still 
more.  Allotting  the  remaining  settlements  and  securing 
their  title  past  dispute  would  have  settled  the  question, 
humanely,justly,  as  it  must  be  settled  now,  unless  we  wish 
to  stand  on  record  as  cruelly  careless,  merciless,  and  unjust 
toward  these  helpless  people  whose  condition  is  in  no  way 
their  own  fault,  and  should  be  amended  by  those  who  have 
forced  them  into  the  strait. 

The  United  States  Government,  by  granting  patents  to 
land  occupied  by  Indians,  by  failing  to  investigate  the  cir- 
cumstances of  fraudulent  reservation  surveys,  and  the 
stealing  of  large  amounts  of  reservation  land  by  whites, 
has  been  responsible  and  is  responsible  for  the  wrongs 
which  are  still  going  on  and  will  go  on  unless  checked  by 
legislation,  until  every  Indian  is  forced  off  the  face  of  this 
country.  They  are  dying  very  fast,  of  want,  semi-starvation, 
the  ills  that  attack  the  old  and  the  children,  colds,  con- 
sumption, grippe,  and  the  like,  aggravated  by  lack  of  warm 
clothing  and  of  sufficient  food.  The  sick  and  dying  lie 
upon  earth  floors  on  a  bed  of  rags  without  a  coverlet.  At 
Manzanita  the  fifty-seven  people  of  the  place  were  eating 
a  little  green  corn  a«  their  only  food.  They  eat  the  man- 
zanita berries  when  they  can  find  them,  and  acorns,  boiled 
grass,  anything  to  sustain  life ;  but  the  drought  blighted 
even  the  wild  crops  this  year.  There  were  few  manzanita 
berries,  and  the  acorns  fell  from  the  trees  in  June.  In 
winter,  when  the  rain  sets  the  herbage  growing,  some  small 
game,  rats,  and  jack-rabbits  may  be  found  ;  but  in  summer 
the  parched  earth  is  like  a  desert,  and  not  even  a  rabbit  is 
to  be  seen.  The  young  men  all  ride  away  from  home,  fifty 
miles  or  more,  to  obtain  chance  work  at  wood-cutting, 
digging  wells,  doing  any  labor  the  white  ranchers  have  to 
be  done  ;  but  many  of  the  white  farmers  on  large  tracts  of 
the  best  land  are  too  poor  in  this  country  to  hire  laborers. 


The  old  Indians  must  stay  at  home,  deprived  of  any  means 
of  livelihood. 

A  glance  at  the  desert  soil  and  heaps  of  rocks,  their  only 
field  for  agriculture,  would  convince  the  most  careless 
observer  that  it  is  not  laziness  which  has  brought  them  to 
want  and  despair.  Everything  shows  evidence  of  in- 
dustry. The  tiny  patches  of  level  land  are  laboriously 
cultivated. 

It  is  the  extremest  cruelty,  a  pitiless  irony,  to  require  of 
the  Indian  that  which  would  be  an  impossible  task  for  a 
white  man  with  all  his  superior  advantages ;  to  expect  him, 
without  tools,  without  water,  and  with  miserable  soil,  to 
support  a  family  and  rise  to  the  refinements  of  civilization. 

In  considering  the  case  of  the  Mission  Indians  we  must 
not  overlook  an  acute  phase  of  the  subject,  which  has 
lately  presented  itself,  in  connection  with  the  irrigation 
and  settlement  of  the  desert  in  San  Diego  County,  and  the 
proposed  opening  up  of  the  New  River  district.  As  the 
time  to  protect  these  Indians  is  when  the  rush  for  entrance 
upon  their  lands  begins,  not  after  patents  have  been  filed 
upon  that  land,  so  the  present  moment  is  the  time  to  pro- 
tect the  reservations  or  settlements  of  the  desert  Indians 
from  the  mad  rush  of  land-grabbers,  who  are  going  out 
even  upon  the  desert,  expecting  the  development  of  water 
to  give  it  value.  The  "  San  Diego  Union  "  says:  "The 
eyes  of  thousands  of  persons  were  turned  toward  this  sec- 
tion during  the  past  year,  and  something  like  45,000 acres 
were  filed  upon  under  the  desert  or  homestead  laws.  It 
will  not  be  long  before  there  is  not  an  acre  left,  for  the 
land  is  being  taken  up  at  a  rapid  rate." 

Not  a  word  is  said  about  Indian  occupancy  in  this  dis- 
trict, and  although  I  have  not  at  hand  a  county  map  of 
San  Diego  by  which  one  can  locate  their  reservations,  it 
is  more  than  probable  that  the  patents  now  being  given 
encroach  upon  some  of  the  villages  or  settlements  of 
these    Indians.      It   is    miserable   land   at   the   be5t;    the 


i6 

Indians  are  extremely  destitute  ;  but  special  care  should 
be  taken  that  not  an  acre  now  occupied  by  them  is  seized 
upon,  as  to  turn  them  out  upon  the  desert  away  from  the 
few  springs  they  own  would  mean  actual  and  immediate 
death. 

That  settlers  will  give  no  consideration  to  their  prior 
claims  is  certain.  The  whole  history  of  the  settlement  of 
CaHfornia  has  shown  this;  and  although  the  early  devel- 
opment of  this  forbidding  and  really  terrible  country  is 
not  probable,  the  land  can  be  filed  upon  under  the  desert 
law  without  residence;  and  an  Indian  village  could  be 
seized  and  occupied  at  leisure. 

Immediate  action  should  be  taken  by  the  Government 
to  secure  all  settlements  of  the  desert  Indians  from  ag- 
gression, and  their  reservations  should  be  allotted  like 
those  of  the  other  tribes  of  the  Mission  Indians. 

For  years  these  Indians  have  been  holding  out  implor- 
ing hands,  begging,  through  any  means  whereby  they 
might  find  voice,  not  for  food,  but  for  land;  not  for 
charity,  but  for  justice. 

Will  not  the  Congress  of  our  land  listen  to  this  appeal  ? 
Will  not  every  friend  of  the  Indian,  every  friend  of  the 
right,  use  his  influence  to  enforce  it  and  to  give  it  em- 
phasis ? 


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